Rebellion, resistance and survival theme

Question 1

all characters rebel

Answer 1

every major character in the book has had some kind of disobedience against Gilead’s laws

Question 2

Moira

Answer 2

rebels most boldly- her daring escape proves futile and she ends up at Jezebel’s resigned to her fate

Question 3

Ofglen

Answer 3

her rebellion is more community-minded, since she works as part of an organised resistance, although her careful plotting also ends badly

Question 4

Small scale rebellion

Answer 4

from the Commander and his wife

Question 5

Commander

Answer 5

has the advantage- a man, powerful in the new regime and wealthy

Gilead should be his ideal society, especially as he might have helped designed it, however, he desires a deeper emotional connection

breaks the law to help and care for Offred

Question 6

Commander’s wife

Answer 6

tries to get around the structures of Gilead- sets Offred and Nick up in an attempt to make a family

these rebellious acts add complexity to their characters and to the dystopia as well

Question 7

Rebellion

Answer 7

large or small, by attempting to destroy the Gileadean government or merely to make one’s personal circumstances more tolerable, each character commits rebellious acts, highlighting both the horror of Gilead

Question 8

Resistance quote latin

Answer 8

“nolite te bastardes carborandorum”

Question 9

Lack of rebellion

Answer 9

“I’ve crossed no boundaries, I’ve given no trust, taken no risk”

Question 10

Her choice to be a handmaid

Answer 10

“nothing going on here that I haven’t signed up for”

Question 11

Attwood’s point

Answer 11

Atwood is questioning why people so often co-operate with totalitarian regimes

Question 12

Freedom

Answer 12

Handmaids have the “freedom to and freedom from” but are actually free from individual choice

Question 13

Suicide in both books

Answer 13

is a tactical weapon to escape and prevent confession - in 1984 Julia’s previous lover committed suicide to avoid confessing and Ofglen commits suicide to avoid informing on Mayday

Question 14

THMT - what happened to Moira

Answer 14

I’d like to tell a story about how Moira escaped, for good this time…But…I don’t know how she ended

Question 15

1984 - Terror of room 101

Answer 15

I’ve got a wife and three children. The biggest of them isn’t six years old. You can take the whole lot of them and cut their throats in front of my eyes, and I’ll stand by and watch it. But not Room 101!’

Question 16

1984 - Indoctrination - the result

Answer 16

But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

Question 17

1984 - MInd

Answer 17

They can’t get inside of you. If you can feel that staying human is worth while, even when it can’t have any result whatever, you’ve beaten them.

Question 18

1984 - Goldstein

Answer 18

He [Goldstein] was the commander of a vast shadowy army, an underground network of conspirators dedicated to the overthrow of the State. The Brotherhood…

Question 19

1984 - hope

Answer 19

If there is hope, wrote Winston, it lies in the proles.

Question 20

1984 - resistance

Answer 20

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

Question 21

1984 - survival

Answer 21

from Goldstein’s Book:] …the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival.

Question 22

THMT - telling Moira’s story

Answer 22

I’ve tried to make it sound as much like her [Moira] as I can. It’s a way of keeping her alive.

Question 23

THMT - commander’s relationship with Serena

Answer 23

…his wife didn’t understand him. That’s what I was there for then. The same old thing. It was too banal to be true.

Question 24

THMT - sex v love

Answer 24

But this is wrong, nobody dies from lack of sex. It’s lack of love we die from.

Question 25

THMT - female/personal power

Answer 25

I enjoy the power; power of a dog bone, passive but there.

Question 26

THMT? - being tortured

Answer 26

I made up a lot of stuff. You do that, when they use the electrodes and the other things. You don’t care what you say.

Question 27

THMT - telling instead of writing

Answer 27

I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling….Tell rather than write…writing is…forbidden

Question 28

THMT - Pain

Answer 28

I’m a coward, I hate the thought of pain.

Question 29

THMT - detachment

Answer 29

One detaches oneself. One describes.

Question 30

THMT -the thought of escape

Answer 30

The fact is that I no longer want to leave, escape, cross the border to freedom.

Question 31

THMT - Choice

Answer 31

Why am I frightened? …It’s the choice that terrifies me. A way out, a salvation.

Question 32

THMT - The Bible

Answer 32

It [the Bible] is an incendiary device: who knows what we’d make of it, if we ever got our hands on it?

Question 33

THMT - small transgressions

Answer 33

I want to steal something.